It is 8:36 AM on Sunday July 22nd, 2018.
Since my family is in Japan I no longer have to get up immediately upon awakening. During our normal routine I like to have my own time and that means I have to get up early to enjoy the peace of the early morning before the schedule starts. I go to bed early during the normal routine so getting up early isn’t much of a problem. However, now that I’m by myself I’m staying up a little later and now find myself waking up around 6:30 AM. However, I do not get up but lie there for another 30 – 45 minutes recalling my dreams, thinking of what I’ll do with the day and just letting ideas come into my head.
As for the dreams I haven’t had ones I care to recall in a very long time so I just let those fade away. During those first 30 minutes my mind is open: I can think very clearly and things occur to me that do not when my mind settles into its usual waking patters. Sometimes I have fantastic ideas an other times my mind just wanders off unbounded and I think of things that seem to waste my precious free time.
This morning I thought about why I do not decide to go biking and hiking anymore. Why is it that in previous summers I would do these activities but have no desire to do so now? Thinking this through in those early morning hours I came to two conclusions. The first is that I desired exercise and taking advantage of the beautiful mountains and ocean views here in Pacifica hiking and biking were great options. Yet now, I have my own gym and so getting exercise is as easy as stepping into my garage. The second reason is that without this primary motivation I simply hadn’t focused my mind on doing these activities and thus the desire to go do them hasn’t been strong enough.
Furthermore, I’m getting older and no longer have the innate energy and motivation I once did. I also do karate now which makes my body tired the following day and lets me know that I did in fact exercise already. If I work out as well by body is twice as tired. I do miss hiking and biking but the desire simply isn’t there.
The second thing on my mind today was concerning my vegetable juice. I go to the farmers market every Wednesday for fresh vegetables to juice. However, as I’m watching them I wonder if there are chemicals and pesticides used as the vegetables are so big and healthy looking. So the thought occurs if I’m helping or harming my body with this practice.
That then leads to my next thought in that the United States is much more of a business than a country. Profits are what makes this country function. The Republicans have shown us that we’re not all in this together with their denunciation of healthcare. There are and have been so many pointless wars fought with various reasons (lies?) given by our leaders. It took me a long time to figure out the main reason for these wars and I’ve come to the conclusion that it is for profit. These profits do help the regular person, there is no doubt but when you consider the disparity between rich and poor a picture begins to form and that is one of the 1% benefiting thousands of times over those that actually fight the wars and so for the common man it may be better if the wars did not happen at all. Having lived in the third world I see the common man is happier in those countries with much less! Take a trip to the inner city where the poor do have houses, they have air conditioning, cell phones, a vehicle and some form of entertainment. Yet, everyone compares their financial and material situation to others and in finding they are at the lower end designate themselves ‘poor’ when they would be at the higher end if we were to compare things with the third world. This mindset is very harmful and causes broken families, poor education and a feeling of being left out.
The USA is a business, we are not connected by a shared ancestry or race, a common good, a common religion and and the shadow of the Civil War has not faded away shown by the current debate over Civil War monuments. The flag, the bald eagle, the National Anthem before sporting events and the Pledge of Allegiance are all constructs to try and create some sort of unity but it is all just made up without any real binding force behind it. This is unlike the Japanese who are homogeneous, move as one force, think alike and share the same religion. So instead of the Pledge or other examples above what really binds us is the motive to improve our financial situation and our only concern as for others is if they help us do that or not. This motive is what binds us nationally and without it what do we really have other than 300 years of living in the same land? Locally we group ourselves up according to religion, schools, clubs which give us local community. Yes there is language and similar culture that bind us but as for nationally we’re now divided between political lines and this gulf has never been deeper or more severe. And so if we’re not bound by politics, religion, race, or the common good that only leaves profit and obtaining the bigger house or car, more junk and so on.
This struggle for profit is a powerful force and I imagine the USA will continue to bumble along. Trump will not be President forever and has done a fantastic job of breaking the bonds to our allies. But let’s look at this. We now have no allies, domestically we’re divided politically, we’re not working for the common good, and profit is our only common goal. What happens if the profit dries up? We can no longer bound together as Americans because frankly one political side detests the other. Things will continue to deteriorate and given the momentous political changes over the past few years who knows what the USA will look like in the coming years?
And that is what I thought about this morning. Now on to the day, I’ll workout, try to get my favorite fireplace DVD onto a computer file (which has proved problematic in the past), organize my things, take a nap and watch Game of Thrones. That is how I will spend this Sunday.
